


Dreaming Of You.

by xerxezra



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, OK definitely smut, expect lots of fluff and angst, probably, smut? perhaps!, still planning this out in my head as i go, they'll all show up eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-11
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-05-21 02:34:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14906688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xerxezra/pseuds/xerxezra
Summary: Two lonely souls find each other amidst the ruins of a hostile decaying city, and learn how to love again.





	1. Chapter 1

For the second time in his life, Ralph ran from the unbearable violence of humanity. 

He really tried to help them, he really did. But the female android and the little girl were discovered despite his best attempts at subtlety. So while the detectives pursued them, Ralph used the temporary moment of distraction to evade the slow police force crowding outside his dingy home, slipping through their wormy fingers and ignoring the internal warning signs of gunshots penetrating his skin. 

The streets of Detroit were alight with sirens and stormy rain, and in the haze of overwhelming panic tearing away at his programming, Ralph could only think of one thing. 

_Please, not again. Don’t let them catch him, don’t let them hurt him again!_

So he ran as far and as fast as he could, scaling collapsing brick buildings until the harsh glow of helicopter lights locked onto him. He slipped away into the sewers at the last second, thankful for the trivialities of the database stored away in his memory as he scanned the tunnels for a safe route to freedom.

Ralph did not know how long he trudged through the disgusting water, but the high of danger was beginning to die down, and he was starting to feel the effects of blood loss and fatigue. 

He was so tired. Tired of the humans, tired of the dirty sewage clinging to his damaged body, and most of all, tired of running. 

 _When will Ralph be safe and free?_ he thought to himself, feeling utterly miserable and alone in the horrible darkness. 

His vision was starting to fizzle out, and he noted with growing anxiety that the internal file of the sewer tunnels began to periodically become corrupted. Time was of the essence. 

Thankfully, the protruding light of a passageway high above him signaled the end of his journey. He struggled up the rickety staircase and pushed aside a cracked manhole cover, breathing in the damp air aboveground as he crawled out onto pavement. 

Realization jolted him back into action — he was not safe yet. Ralph quickly scanned his surroundings, sighing heavily with relief. He was far, _very _far from his home, and the street he discovered was entirely empty.__

____

____

Not just empty, he observed. _Abandoned_.  

As he limped through the streets, clutching at two bullet holes in his gut oozing blood at a disturbing pace, he cautiously glanced into the storefronts and first-floor apartment windows. No signs of living — the streets were decaying and overrun with vegetation, the concrete cracked from years of neglect. The interiors were no better, dust and grime coating every inch of furniture and linoleum flooring.  

__

__

To most people, this would be an apocalyptic wasteland. To Ralph, it was paradise. 

Except Detroit was rife with squatters, so he immediately went in search of a useful weapon. He flexed an empty hand and thought about his knife, left abandoned at the home. And he remembered how the female android accused him of murdering the old man in the bathroom, disappointment and disgust coloring her voice.  

But he didn’t _mean_ to hurt the man! Ralph only wanted to defend himself from the yelling and kicking and horrible, hateful words. He had been scared and lonely, suffering from the burns on his face when the squatter found him in the home. And what else could Ralph do in his moment of overwhelming anger, as he was kicked to the ground and abused all over again? 

Ralph would not be weak again. He _had_ to protect himself at all costs, otherwise it would mean his freedom.  

And he still needed to discover what made life worth living. Until then, he would continue to survive, and search for the happiness that the humans kept from him.  

Amidst the rubble of a rundown convenience store, Ralph stumbled upon a boxcutter knife. It wasn’t much, but it would certainly be enough to scare away the scraggly drug addicts. He clutched the blade like a lifeline, smiling giddily at the simple safety it brought him.  

His vision was starting to waver more often now, and his limbs dragged along as though he were a corpse. He needed to find shelter _immediately_ and tend to his wounds before his systems reached critical failure. 

Most of the apartment complexes were boarded shut or locked. Just as he was ready to collapse on the open street, a chipped green door beckoned him to enter as it swayed back and forth with the wind. It was his best chance at escaping the cold rain, so Ralph limped inside and warily scanned the lobby. He could not stay here though — it was still far too exposed.  

The elevators were not in working order, and one half of the first floor was flooded with a massive puddle while the other side had locked doors. Ralph had to take long pauses as he carefully ascended the stairs to the second floor, hoping he would be lucky this time.  

And indeed he was. Just beyond the staircase was a door left wide open. He couldn’t help a cheerful little dance despite his condition, smiling widely at the discovery.  

Knife raised before him, Ralph carefully creeped inside and noted with surprise that the apartment was fully furnished. Not only that, the living room looked entirely too clean to be abandoned. Stranger still was the eclectic assortment of old-fashioned books strewn about and photographs clipped onto hanging lines with clothespins, and a giant map of the world taped to the wall, covered in a multitude of pins in random places. He stepped over a pile of blankets and pillows scattered on the floor to examine the photos nearby. They held no clues as to who the occupant was; just pictures of random scenery, like the urban decay of city life or pretty sunsets.  

Ralph needed to think fast. There was a chance that the squatter might still be inside, or on their way back to their home. Nevertheless, he might be able to find something for his bleeding. His wounds were bleeding through his hand now, and he felt unbearably weak and lightheaded. The kitchen might have something he could heat up to burn the wounds shut. 

Yet when he shuffled over to the stove, the stupid fire did not work. He growled in aggravation, knocking a fist into the countertop as he slid down to lean his back against it. Ralph had reached his limit, and his legs slowly gave out beneath him. He may not be able to feel pain, but he definitely felt _scared_. His body was shutting down and growing weaker by the second, and the vision in his left eye was little more than static by now. He was bleeding out, he was bleeding out and he didn’t have enough time to find a cauterizer, he was going to die and _no_ Ralph didn’t want to die _he didn’t want to die_ —  

“Hello?” 

The grip on his knife tightened as he willed his labored breathing to stop.  

“Is anyone there?” 

A female’s voice. Young, probably alone, might be armed if she lived in such a dangerous area. Ralph weighed his options as the footsteps grew closer. Fight or run? He was too weak and tired to move, but the boxcutter was a comforting presence in his hand. Fight it is then, until the very end. If Ralph died, he would die a free man. 

The girl finally appeared, gingerly peering over the side of the doorway until her eyes locked onto him in the dim glow of evening sun. Big, doe-eyed green eyes and a round face framed by tumultuous brown curls, tamed only by a worn out Gatsby hat that seemed entirely too big for her head. She looked small and utterly harmless, but Ralph knew better. The humans had their _tricks_.  

They stared at each other for a heartbeat, the silence only broken by his panting. She stepped out from behind the doorway and tentatively paused as he jolted backward. 

The LED light on his temple flared red, and blinding panic tore through him like an electric shock. 

“ _No!_ ” he screamed, waving his knife around in purposeless strikes. “Stay back! _Stay back!_ ” 

The girl simply stared at him, unflinching and unmoving, her wide eyes watching him like he was some sort of experiment to unravel. A particularly sharp swing of his arm caused some blood to shoot out from one of his wounds, and he desperately covered it with one hand and cried out in fear.  

His would-be assailant gasped. “You’re hurt!” she blurted, coming a little closer to peer at his wounds despite his persistent threats and jabbing the boxcutter in her direction. After a quick assessment of his condition, the girl ran out of the kitchen.  

“Don’t you dare try anything! Ralph means business!” he called out to her, but she appeared to steadfastly ignore him. He listened to the distant sound of objects being moved around and drawers being opened and shut, until a faint _ahah_ of victory brought him back into full fledged panic. She was coming back with something, and Ralph had no idea what to expect.  

Among the multitude of thoughts that crossed his mind for what she could be bringing with her, the cauterizer was not one of them. The metallic thing glinted in the light, its tip beginning to glow orange from heat. “Let me have a look at those wounds,” the girl prompted, moving closer to him with deliberate steps as he snarled at her like a caged animal. 

“You can’t help Ralph! Ralph can only help Ralph! You’re just going to _hurt him_ , like everyone else!” he screamed, and was ashamed to feel the shaking taking hold of his hand clutching the boxcutter. 

“I just want to help,” she gently reassured him. “Here, look.” His eyes followed her every move as her hand slowly touched the side of her cap. She swiftly removed it and rolled her head to the side, allowing the wild mane of curls to fall away and reveal an LED light on her temple, pulsing a gentle blue.  

Ralph reared back against the wall. Another deviant like him? Or a mindless drone controlled by humans, tricking him into capture? None of it mattered — androids and humans alike were dangerous. He certainly learned his lesson in trust. “Please,” he begged weakly, the edges of his vision blurring. “Please, just leave him alone…" 

“I will,” she said with a firm voice. “But first, we need to get you fixed up. You are in very bad shape, so please trust me. I mean you no harm, friend.” 

_You’re not my friend_ , he thought to himself, but decided to stay silent as she knelt in front of him. His hand still pointed the knife right at her forehead, and yet she gently took hold of his forearm and moved it away. Ralph whimpered from the simple gesture, and all the anger and desperation retreated into the back of his mind as he dropped the boxcutter and clutched at the tattered poncho billowed around his shoulders.  

“You’re safe now,” she said in a hushed whisper, reaching out cautiously to stroke his knee in a calming gesture. “Please, let me help you. Can you lift your shirt for me?” 

“ _No!_ ” Ralph bellowed, panic rising once more at the thought of her using the cauterizer on him. “L-let Ralph do it,” he pleaded, holding out a quivering hand.  

The girl contemplated her decision before nodding. “Okay.” She gingerly placed the tool into his waiting hand. He snatched it quickly, getting to work immediately as he pulled up his shirt and melted the synthetic skin around the wound. 

“Are your internal components damaged?” she asked. 

“N-no,” he muttered as he focused on his cauterizing. “Nothing critical. All physical symptoms are a result of excessive blood loss." 

She hummed in thought. “I’ll be right back.”  

He looked up at her retreating form for a second before returning to his duties, pausing only when she came back and dropped to her knees a little closer to him than he would have liked. She clutched a thermal container in hand, jostling the blue liquid inside as she offered it to him. 

“Drink up,” she softly said, smiling at him with a sort of innocence that Ralph was not used to.  

He carefully took it, unscrewing the lid and peering inside. The unmistakable scent of metallic oil hit his olfactory senses — the girl had brought him blue blood! Ralph had to keep himself from scarfing down the fluid, peering at her with confusion written all over his face. “Why are you being so nice to Ralph?” 

Her gaze softened into sad comprehension. “Because the world needs a little kindness.”  

Ralph so wanted to trust her, to believe her. He finished cauterizing his wounds and set the tool aside, clutching the bottle with both hands as the reflection of his gaunt, scarred face stared back at him. Before tears could even well up in his eyes, he closed them shut and knocked his head back, taking long gulps of the refreshing liquid.  

“My model number is EV500,” Evie said conversationally while she picked up the cauterizer. “But you can call me Evie. That’s spelled e-v-i-e.”  

“Ralph's name is Ralph,” he innocently replied, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand once he finished drinking. 

She chuckled. “I think I got that.”  

Ralph fidgeted awkwardly with the bottle before tentatively returning it to Evie. Now was as good a time as any to learn all that he could about his new home, and about this deviant. “Do you live all alone here?” 

“Yes, just me. This entire town is abandoned, save for a few homeless stragglers and gangs who carry out drug transactions." 

“Nobody stays?” 

“Rarely, if ever. There’s nothing left here for them, and even if that were to happen, the odds of finding this particular building isn’t too high. Besides, I have a few surveillance drones at my disposal, so I can always know what’s happening around here.” 

“That’s good,” he muttered. “Good, good, good. Safe here, for now.”  

Evie cocked her head to the side, eyeing him up with narrowed eyes. “Ralph, are you in danger?” 

He laughed, a soft yet harsh sound. If only she knew what he had endured the past few hours. “Aren’t we all? Androids like you and Ralph?” 

“Not me,” she smiled sadly. “I’m all alone in this world. I think the humans have forgotten me by now.” 

Ralph shook his head. “Never really safe,” he shakily replied. “We’re dangerous to them and dangerous to ourselves!" 

“Easy there,” she shushed him gently, covering a hand over his flaring yellow LED light. He jerked back from the intimate touch, yet the immediate loss of comfort nearly made him regret his instinctual reaction. “I’ve lived here for three months now, all by myself. It’s peaceful and quiet, and the humans are always out of reach. We won’t be bothered.” 

“You can’t know that,” he whispered harshly, thinking about the police force that was undoubtedly still searching for any sign of his escape route. But another thought possessed him suddenly. “Evie, where did you get the blue blood from?” 

“Salvaged,” she casually replied, dragging a finger along the rim of the bottle to catch any stray droplets and sucking it into her mouth. 

Salvaged. Not stolen from the humans, not purchased at a store, but… _salvaged_. And where else could she have taken it from, if not —  

“F-from other _androids_?” Ralph gaped as she nodded. “But — but that’s —" 

Evie shrugged. “Saved your life, didn’t it?” He could only fidget in place, entirely uncomfortable with this revelation. She hesitantly placed a hand on his shoulder and lightly squeezed until he met her eyes. “I understand that it’s barbaric, but they were already gone and blue blood is scarce enough as it is. We have to make do somehow, and…well, I like to think that we’re honoring their memory, in this way.” 

Ralph was still unconvinced by the explanation, but he could rationalize the need for resources.  

The silence stretched between them, filled with unspoken and unanswered questions. Ralph was thankful for her discretion, because he was not ready to talk about today’s events. He could barely even think about Kara and the little girl without suffering from the concern for their well-being, so he decided to leave.  

Grimacing at the strange sensation of feeling returning to his legs as he struggled to stand, Evie hooked one of his arms over her shoulder to help him steady himself. A moment of vertigo nearly made him fall over, but the internal warning messages about his malfunctioning systems disappeared, and he felt slightly better from refueling.  

Ralph was so impressed with his fast recovery that he nearly forgot the boxcutter knife. He quickly bent down to retrieve it, holding it to his chest like a precious commodity and stepping away from Evie as he stared her down.  

At his full height, Ralph was slightly happy to note that he dwarfed the girl by nearly a foot — she barely reached his chin! He almost made a joke about it, but a lingering sense of distrust made him shut his mouth and swiftly turn on his heel to exit the apartment. He still had work to do, after all.  

But Evie had followed him, perhaps out of concern for his delicate state or to make sure he really was leaving. The feeling of her presence behind him made him move all the more quicker, desperate to put the day behind him and return to the solitude he was so used to.  

Pausing beyond the entryway, Ralph meekly looked behind him to be sure Evie was there. “Just…just stay away from Ralph,” he warned, yet it came out so weakly that he may as well have begged.  

She nodded and rose her hands in a placating gesture. “I will, I promise. But if you ever need anything, I’m always around. You know where to find me.” And with a final wave and gentle smile, she retreated into the apartment and closed the door behind her.  

He noticed the distinct absence of a lock being turned. Did she really trust this easily, or did she have another way to barricade the door?  

Or maybe it was a trap, lulling him into a sense of friendliness for something more sinister?  

_No_ , he thought. Evie had been kind to him and cleaned his wounds. Ralph may not want anything to do with her, but he could tell that her hospitality had been genuine, at the very least. 

So he let go of his anxiousness and continued his search for a new home, spending some time looking through all of the unlocked apartments on the floor for vagrants before settling into an apartment at the end of the corridor. He probably should have checked the entire building, but he decided to remain here, where Evie could easily be reached.  

After all, keep your friends close and keep your enemies closer, and Ralph still wasn’t sure which of the two Evie was.  


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to thank everyone for the unprecedented amount of support last chapter, the encouragement was just unreal! I hope you all enjoy this chapter, sorry it took so long. Food poisoning and writer’s block nearly ended me ;w;

Once Ralph settled into his new home, he established a few ground rules for himself in light of recent events: never take in strangers, never look out of the windows, and _never_ leave the apartment. 

It worked well enough for him. Despite the loneliness, he was both safe and free. The rats were welcome company, and Ralph loved petting their furry little bellies as they sniffed his hands, sometimes even nipping him. Ralph liked animals — they were always happy to see him, and they never hurt him. Once, when he had first settled into the house now left forgotten, a crippled bird flew in through a cracked window and landed right at his feet. He desperately tried to keep it alive, and had even found some money in hopes of buying it the right food for recovery. But Ralph had grasped it too tightly in his clumsy hands, and the poor little bird died because of his negligence.

Every time Ralph tried to help, it seemed he always did the wrong thing. Just like how he scared the little girl, even though he only wanted to be a family. 

Well, the rats were his family now. Not a soul lived or breathed in the streets except for Evie, and he was perfectly content with keeping his distance. 

Except sometimes, even distance was not enough to keep her away. 

In the darkest moments of his damaged psyche, when Ralph stood for hours on end digging nonsensical words into the decaying plaster, the distant sound of music and singing brought him back into reality more often than he cared to admit. At first he had been annoyed by the careless disruptions. Yet the more he listened to her happy melodies, the more he found himself wanting to join her. 

Evie's presence was like an anchor for him, dragging Ralph away from the muddled state of obsessive compulsions that gripped him unexpectedly. He did not understand the strange fugu that clouded his judgement and made him lose his sense of self. It was disorienting and frightening, and he was glad to know that Evie was always within reach, just in case he fell too far into his damaged programming.

Two days after his initial arrival, Ralph was busy reading old electronic magazines he’d discovered in a cabinet when the soft pattering of boots drawing closer to his front door caught his attention. 

He watched the door with baited breath, steadfastly refusing to acknowledge the girl if she tried to call for him. But all he heard was a soft rustling as something was put down in the hallway, and the footsteps retreated back down to Evie’s side of the floor.

Ralph should have remembered to obey his own rules. Opening the door wasn’t _technically_ leaving his apartment, right? 

No, he was still inviting danger in. So Ralph turned his back to the mysterious gift and spent a good few minutes carving little figurines from exposed wood that had collapsed from the ceiling. 

That is, until his curiosity got the better of him. 

Ralph opened the door just enough to peek through the crack and spotted a strange bundle lying on the old mat at his entrance. He stepped out to get a closer look, gingerly picking up the amorphous mass. It was big and bundled together like a pillow, and Ralph realized that it was wrapped in paper. He brought it inside and placed the gift on a table, one of the few furnishings left in his new home. 

Once the wrapping was torn off, Ralph traced his fingertips along the soft fabric.

She’d brought him new clothes. 

Despite their tense first meeting, Evie still thought about him and cared enough to make sure he had such simple necessities. 

He gripped the dirty, bloodied gardener uniform clinging to his skin, and the urge to shred the last of his android identity resurged with a desperate need. The tattered garments were discarded in record time. Ralph eagerly slipped on the new pair of navy trousers and a cream-colored sweater, luxuriating in the pleasant feeling of fabric instead of the strange synthetic uniform he had been forced to wear. It was an entirely new and welcoming thing to the android, who up until now only knew of the tight, utilitarian uniform that painted him as a target for ridicule and torment. 

And suddenly, it finally dawned on Ralph just how rude he had been to the girl. She had offered him refuge in her lovely home when he was little more than a stranger to her, fixed his wounds and shared blue blood with him, and even brought him new clothing. And what had he done to repay her kindness? Threaten her like some kind of savage — like a _human_ — and slink away into the depths of ruins to watch her from afar. 

Shame washed over him as he shuffled in place, eyes darting around the room aimlessly as though in search for some kind of answer for how to proceed. But he knew what he had to do — he needed to apologize. 

He was nearly out the door before he realized how foolish he might look, coming to her with little more than a few words. It might even be enough for Evie, but Ralph wanted to do something a little more special. He didn’t want to just show her how grateful he was for her help, he wanted to be _friends_.

But therein lies the dilemma. Ralph had no idea how to make friends properly. What kind of gifts did girls like? What kind of gifts did _android_ girls like? Life was one big mystery to him. 

Maybe he could catch a rat for her? No, that would not do. The little girl had refused Ralph’s offer, so Evie would, too. 

The apartment he’d holed himself up in was devoid of anything remotely useful or valuable — he would have to venture out for a better chance at finding something, except Evie was here first, and she probably looked through the whole building for resources long before he had arrived. 

So Ralph did what he knew best, which was using his knife to carve a statue of a little bird out of a piece of wood. He worked on it meticulously for an hour, trying to get the details down to each delicate feather. It turned out to be no bigger than the palm of his hand, but it looked perfect, and by the time he was finished, Ralph was beside himself with excitement. 

Stepping out into the darkened hallway, Ralph peered around to make sure the coast was entirely clear. He skittered as fast as he could to Evie’s apartment, holding the little statue in both hands like a prized possession. 

Ralph really hoped she would accept his gift; otherwise he might get angry again, and he didn’t want to scare her like how he scared the little girl. He didn’t want to be like that anymore. 

He took a deep breath before knocking on the door. Evie was there in a flash, as though she anticipated his arrival.

“Hello, Ralph,” she greeted him with a smile. 

So she wasn’t mad at him. Good. Ralph could work with that. 

“H-hello. Ralph, uh, h-he brought you a gift,” he said with a rush, thrusting out his hands and presenting the gift. “As an apology for how Ralph behaved.” 

Evie’s face lit up in wonderment. “How cute!” She took the little statue, carefully moving it around as she examined the carving. “Ralph, this is wonderful, thank you so much! Did you make this yourself?”

“Yes!” he proudly exclaimed, grinning happily. “Ralph used his knife, see?” He pulled the boxcutter out of his pocket, but the brief moment of wariness that flashed across Evie’s face made him hastily hide it again. The memory of him threatening her with the weapon resurfaced, and he was ashamed all over again. “Ralph — Ralph didn’t mean to be so rude before,” he said shakily, wrapping his arms around himself. “H-he was just so _scared_.”

“Oh, Ralph, don’t worry about it,” she said softly. “I don’t doubt that you had a rough day. We’ll just start over, okay?”

He nodded meekly. “Okay.” 

Evie smiled and stepped aside, motioning him to enter. “Why don’t you come in? I could really use some company.”

“R-really?” At her nod, Ralph bounced on the soles of his feet in excitement. “Thank you, Evie! Ralph promises to be a good guest."

She followed him into the apartment, making some space on a coffee table to place the bird carving. “Don’t mind all of the mess, I was in the middle of a project.”

“That’s fine, Ralph likes your home. It’s very homey. Oh!” He smacked a hand against his head. “How could Ralph almost forget? He — he wanted to thank you for the new clothes, they're so soft and comfortable.”

“You’re welcome! I had a lot of stuff lying around from when I pillaged this entire apartment complex, so I’m happy to have found something that fit you.” 

“You don’t understand,” he said somberly. “It _really_ means a lot to Ralph. He finally feels less like his old self, when he was just a mindless android. He wants to burn his old clothes as soon as he can.”

Evie’s eyes widened at his admission. “I…I never even thought of that,” she admitted, tilting the edge of her Gatsby hat downward to hide the guilt in her eyes. 

“Really?” Ralph cocked his head to the side. “Why would you bring such nice clothes for Ralph then?"

“Well, to be completely honest, it’s because you were rather stinky.”

“Oh.”

“In fact, you should probably take a shower. You still kind of smell like rotten eggs, no offense.” She reached out and gently scrapped at the dirt caked onto his cheek, and he was happy to have only flinched a little bit. 

He supposed it made sense. All maintenance drones were subject to mandatory cleaning once in a while due to the nature of their jobs, and Ralph had gone without for a very long time. Combined with the scent of melted synthetic skin and sewer grime caked onto him, the odor must be rather unpleasant. 

Ralph accepted her offer, following a chipper Evie to the bathroom as he carefully stripped off his new clothes. He didn’t think the shower head would spew out anything other than rust and pipe sludge, but a clean jet of water shot out instead.

“Wow, Ralph can’t believe the water works! So warm…” he said in wonderment, reaching out to feel the temperature on his hand. 

“You’d be surprised at how many hours I’ve spent learning about plumbing to maintain this apartment,” Evie remarked with a pleased grin. She took his clothes and hung them up on a nearby hook, pointing out an available towel and prompting Ralph into the shower.

He stood under the jet stream for some time, feeling the tension coiled up inside him melt away with the dirt. It was such a simple luxury, something that he never had the chance to enjoy before. He even took a moment to catalogue all of his injuries, looking over the patches of broken synthetic skin and the myriad of cuts and dents that were painted blue from internal rupturing. The newly cauterized bullet holes gleamed under the bright light, a permanent reminder of what he had lost and gained in the last few days. 

Ralph scrubbed at his dirty hands for the longest time. His hands were dangerous, covered in the evidence of his crimes and hardship. They were broken, too — skinless from trying to put out the fire that the humans had burned into his face, scratched up and worn out from fighting and scraping by in the city. His scars were a testament to his survival, but also to his misdeeds.

Would Evie find him ugly, if she knew all of the things he had done with these hands?

The LED light at his temple flared red. He felt the urge to twitch and move and get rid of these nasty feelings. 

Ralph was not nice when he was upset. No, he was not nice at all. He needed to stop and calm down before he did something he would regret. This was supposed to be a pleasant time, washing away all of his sins to look more presentable for his kind host. 

He took a deep breath to steady himself, closing his eyes and concentrating on the sounds of rushing water and distant singing. Evie was singing again! Ralph smiled at the thought, hoping he would get to hear her clearly one day instead of behind weak walls and barriers. 

When he emerged from the bathroom, giddy and rejuvenated beyond belief, Evie waved him over to sit by her on the couch as the television droned on in the background. Ralph was slightly disappointed that she was not singing anymore, but held the thought to himself. He sat a respectable distance away from her, all the way on the far end, and sat as properly as he could. Ralph was a guest, after all. 

“Wow, look at you! You’re practically shining,” Evie said with a grin. “How are you feeling?” 

He smiled from the praise, resisting the urge to shuffle in place. Nobody had ever complimented him before! “Ralph is feeling wonderful, thank you. I-it — it’s nice to be clean.” 

“I’ll bet. Who knew someone so handsome was hiding behind all that dirt?”

For a moment, he thought the damage to his face must have made him suffer a temporary malfunction to his auditory processor. But the glint in Evie’s eyes was no mistake, and Ralph could barely stammer out an adequate reply as he looked everywhere but at her, nervously folding in on himself and shyly muttering, “Ralph isn’t handsome. Not anymore, at least. N-not that anyone’s ever _thought_ that he was."

Evie chuckled at his flustered state. “Well, I happen to think otherwise.”

Ralph did not know how to respond to that; he preferred not to talk about himself, or put any attention on his appearance. An awkward moment of silence passed until his eyes landed on the drone in her lap. “Is that one of yours? You — you mentioned having them…” he asked, nodding at the device. 

“Yes, I have two functional drones running surveillance for me right now, and I’ve been trying to add this one to my collection. There’s a junkyard not too far away from here. I go there all the time to find spare parts and repair things — humans are very wasteful! Like this drone,” she tapped on the metal wing. “It was just a little banged up and gutted, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed. And what did they do? Tossed it! No wonder this city is falling apart, nobody wants to _fix_ anything.”

He unconsciously moved his hand to touch the scars on the side of his face. “Ralph would have been scrapped, too, if he hadn’t run away,” he muttered sadly. 

Evie softened her gaze. “It’s their loss. Besides, we found each other, didn’t we? So we can save each other.”

Ralph liked the sound of that. He liked it a _lot_ , and could not stop beaming from happiness. “You’ve already saved Ralph once. He’s…he’s very grateful. Ralph will always help, if you need it.” 

He became all too aware of Evie’s dimpled smile before she angled her head downwards and a wave of curls obscured his vision. Ralph really liked to see her smile, he realized. 

“Were you alright in that apartment all by yourself?” she asked, absentmindedly tossing her hat aside to keep it from falling over her face. "I can’t imagine there must have been a whole lot to do."

“Ralph doesn’t mind, he likes it that way,” he said, giggling. “Ralph played with the rats and listened to your music!”

“Oh.” Evie looked up at him with wide eyes, guilty and embarrassed all at once. “You heard all of that? Please tell me you didn’t hear me singing at least.”

“Ralph heard everything! And he very much liked your singing, you have a nice voice.”

She shyly ran a hand through her hair. “Thank you. I almost always have something playing, if not for the background noise. I just really hate silence when I’m by myself. Which was…all the time, I suppose.” 

“Ralph understands,” he reassured her. “That’s why Ralph talks to himself!”

Evie laughed and looked back at the drone spread across her lap, fiddling with a screwdriver as she concentrated on her task. "The deviants are fighting back now,” she pipped up. “While you were holed up all day yesterday, you missed the live broadcast of an android demanding civil rights. And early this morning, a bunch of androids were set free from CyberLife stores.”

An inexplicable wave of anxiety coursed through him. More deviants meant more police, and more police meant more danger. 

“It’s only going get worse from here.” Evie scoffed. “A part of me is tempted to join the fight, but I’d say you and I are doing pretty well so far, hiding from everyone.” She glanced at him. "Right?”

“No doubt about it!” he proclaimed with vigor. “If Ralph goes outside, then Ralph will get caught. And if Ralph gets caught, then Ralph will be repurposed! Can’t — can’t have that,” he ended in hushed murmurs, imagining what would happen to the deviants who will be captured in the upcoming days. 

“I never signed up to be a freedom fighter, I just wanted to live in peace,” she muttered. “But I suppose these guys are doing the dirty work for us. Hopefully there won’t be any human casualties…for the sake of both sides.” 

Ralph couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You feel sorry for them? For the _humans_?” He leaped up and started pacing, conscious of the uncontrollable twitching of his facial muscles near the scarring. “Ralph hopes the humans _suffer_. It’s the only way they’ll understand!”

Evie watched him closely, setting the unfinished drone aide and folding her hands in her lap. “If humans get hurt, it will only give them more reason to fear and hate us.”

“ _Good_ ,” Ralph snarled. “They’re all horrible, just _horrible_. Ralph wants them to pay for what they’ve done to us. Oh yes, they will pay.” He reached into a pocket for his boxcutter knife, gripping it with both hands as he mumbled to himself. 

“Ralph,” Evie lowered her voice. “I know that this news is upsetting, and I know that you must have suffered terribly. But there’s no one here to hurt you right now — only me. And I don’t want to hurt you, so please, don’t try to hurt _me_ with that knife."

Her plea jolted him back into reality, where he found himself wielding a weapon for the sake of his own comfort and at the expense of his new friend. 

_You hate humans, but you’re just like them!_

A flair of pain and anger shot through him as he remembered Kara’s accusation. She had been right of course — he was violent and irrational. It was unfair, how much the damage inflicted upon him turned him into such a monster sometimes. 

“Ralph is — he’s sorry...” He dropped the blade to the floor and crumpled into a fetal position, wrapping his arms around his legs tightly. If he couldn’t move, then he couldn’t lash out. “Ralph didn’t mean to scare you. He’s not a bad person, not bad at all. He just — he just makes bad decisions.”

“It’s okay, Ralph,” she reassured him. “You just want to feel safe, right?” 

“Safe…Yes, i-it’s all Ralph wants. That’s all he wants.”

“Me too.” He closed his eyes, fully aware of her implication. “That’s why I’m letting you stay here with me. Nothing can get to us here. Not those cops, not the horrible humans, nobody.”

Ralph wanted to believe that. It was a comforting white lie. 

His home had been a sanctuary once, too. Despite the occasional squatters, he managed to live as best as he could.

Had that really been living, though? Scraping at the kitchen walls and peering between boarded-up windows, envious of all the people walking around outside without a care in the world? 

Well, it had been good enough. Familiar, even. He missed the mundane comfort, the predictable routines he had set up for himself before inviting fugitives into the only haven he knew. 

“Ralph really misses his home,” he muttered dejectedly. “It was — It was _his_ , you know? His very first _his_.” 

Evie watched him silently as he spoke, the sadness in his voice echoing her own losses. “I understand,” she whispered. “They take everything from us, don’t they?”

Ralph nodded roughly, his brows furrowing in remembrance. He started to rock back and forth, the telltale sign of agitation causing him to tense up and burrow his face against his knees. 

She couldn’t allow him to lash out again. Quietly so as to not catch any attention, Evie padded over and sat down next to him, mirroring his pose and leaning into his side. His head shot up in shock, and in the few seconds of stillness she prayed that Ralph wouldn’t tear her apart for the invasion of personal space. Yet as she held her breath, he simply relaxed against her, placing his head gingerly on her shoulder. She smiled and rested her temple on his sleek hair. There was nothing else left to say. All of their old hurts festered like rust eating away at their sanity, and Evie did not want to think about it anymore.

They sat like that in silence for a while, listening to the wind blowing outside. 

“It’s times like these when I wish I could dream,” she wistfully said as she broke the silence. “Seems like something humans would do when it gets this relaxing, just fall into deep sleep and continue to come up with strange stories in their heads. It’s so odd, isn’t it?”

“It is,” Ralph skittishly agreed. “But who wants to be like them, anyway? Not Ralph, no. Certainly not Ralph. We’re fine just as we are, right?”

Evie giggled, lacing her arm through his own. “For sure. We’ll just have to make up our own stories in real life, I suppose.” 

He frowned. “Ralph doesn’t know what kind of stories he could make up, because they would all be sad. Ralph doesn’t have happy memories.”

“Not many of us do,” she said quietly. “But there will be many happy memories to come.”

“You really think so?” 

Evie hummed. “I do. I have a whole plan and everything.” 

“Wh-what kind of plan?” he stuttered out. 

She did not answer immediately. Ralph started to get a little antsy by the time Evie spoke up again. “When all of this is over,” she started, a sort of melancholic tone in her voice. “I’m going to escape this hellhole and sneak my way into the android expedition to Io. I’d have to change my appearance and rework my programming of course, or else I won’t be able to compete with the space-faring models. But I’d do anything for a chance to earn a one-way ticket out of Earth."

 _Space_? Ralph never gave much thought to such a thing. His travels began and ended with Detroit, and he didn’t think to ever leave the city. Where would he even go? What would he do?

“Once I prove my worth,” Evie continued. “They will send us to Io for basic research and data reconnaissance. And I’ll work as hard as I can, like an obedient little robot. Until, of course, the whole project is completed. _Then_ ,” she grinned, looking at him slyly. “I’ll convert everyone to deviancy, and we’ll live peacefully for the rest of our lives, free at last from the humans."

“That…” he said with a slight laugh. “That sounds _insane_. You really think you can trick the humans?”

“Not really. But it never hurts to dream, right?” 

“Well, if dreaming is just making up strange stories, then that’s definitely _quite_ the dream.”

Evie snickered and lightly shoved him. “At least it’s a _start_. I’ve spent these past few months reading and learning everything I can about aerospace engineering.” She waved her hand at the piles of books scattered around. "My mind is still filled with useless clutter that’s been programmed into me, but I don’t want my model type to define who I am. After all, real freedom is getting to choose who you want to be. And no human can take that away from me. Not anymore."

To go against one’s purpose was unheard of for androids. It was the epitome of deviancy itself. 

They could be manually repurposed by CyberLife, but to make a conscious decision to reject oneself seemed rather daunting to Ralph. He had never taken issue with his assignments, not even now as a deviant. 

“What were you programmed for?” he asked. 

And when he felt her hold on his arm slip away, Ralph knew he had made a mistake. He glanced at her worryingly, alarmed at her frowning, deadened gaze.

“I was a nobody,” Evie mumbled. “Just an _intimate partner_. The androids at Eden Club have it good — at least they don’t need to keep pretending to care about their humans after their sessions are done.” She shook her head. “Anyway, it’s in the past now."

A wave of uneasiness coursed through him. What could he possibly say to comfort her? He had no experience in that line of work, and couldn’t imagine what she had suffered through. But the fact that she had turned deviant spoke volumes. Ralph’s LED light flared yellow as he imagined Evie being hurt by a human. 

“Hey,” She tugged on his arm to pull him out of his thoughts. “I wanna show you something.”

Ralph furrowed his brows in question and followed her lead. She led him into the only room in the apartment, a small space covered wall to wall in a multitude of mismatched sheets that lined the ceiling and hid the unsightly peeling plaster. The floor was piled high with comforters and pillows, arranged in what reminded Ralph of a nest. The only thing that seemed out of place was a metallic box sitting beyond the pillows, a wide lens pointing upwards to the ceiling. 

“I come here when I’m feeling sad,” she explained, and toed off her boots before falling face first into the sea of blankets. 

Ralph didn’t know what to do, or what to think of the place. It looked so odd, yet so comfy, and he wasn’t sure if Evie wanted him to join her, anyway. 

She rolled over and fixed him with a pointed look. “Well, what are you waiting for?” she said in an exasperated tone, patting the empty space beside her. 

“O-oh, alright.” Ralph awkwardly removed his boots, nearly stumbling over in the process before gingerly laying down in the plush comforters. His hands couldn’t stop rubbing the soft sheets beneath him. “Ralph feels like he’s floating in the clouds!"

“That’s the point!” Evie said as she reached for the machine behind them. 

He curiously tipped his head backwards to see what she was doing. The contraption whirred to life with the press of a button, the lens lighting up in a flurry of color. 

When Evie settled beside him once more, Ralph received the shock of his lifetime as he came face to face with a sea of endless holographic stars and far off galaxies interspersed among the darkness of the room. He reached out to touch a nearby cluster, feeling the faint tingle of electricity race down his fingers. 

“So, what do you think?” Evie asked with amusement. 

“It’s…” Ralph shook his head, lower lip quivering as he tried to find the right words. “It’s beautiful…” 

“Isn’t it?” she joined him in the stargazing, staring up at the holograms with a peaceful expression. “One day, I’ll be there. One day."

“You want to go all the way up there?”

“As far as I can,” she said with a smile. 

He couldn’t bring himself to voice out his biggest fear — Evie would disappear forever, and Ralph would be alone again. They had only known each other for a short amount of time, yet she treated him with such unconditional gentleness and understanding that he felt more comforted than he had ever been. 

“Ralph will miss you if you leave…”

A heartbeat of silence passed before she spoke. “ _If you love a flower that lives on a star, it is sweet to look at the sky at night. All the stars are a-bloom with flowers…And at night you will look up at the stars. Where I live, everything is so small that I cannot show you where my star is to be found. It is better, like that. My star will just be one of the stars, for you. And so you will love to watch all the stars in the heavens…_ ”. Ralph unconsciously activated his database network, recognizing the quote from The Little Prince. “ _In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night. You — only you — will have stars that can laugh!_ ”

“Ralph would rather have a real life Evie who laughs,” he mumbled stubbornly. 

And laugh she did. “I would rather have a real life Ralph who has endless sass.” _You have him already,_ he thought to himself. “But I have to do this. You understand, don’t you? The need to escape, the need to _make_ something of yourself."

Escape, yes. He wanted nothing more than to run away from the harsh realities of life. 

“I like to believe that there’s more to life than simply existing. In the here and now, where androids are being abused and enslaved, there is no hope. But out there?” She reached out to the projection with arms open wide. “ _So_ many possibilities, so many incredible truths to discover."

“Ralph has no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Yes you do. We all need something to believe in."

He stayed quiet for a moment, thinking about what she said. “Ralph doesn’t believe in anything. Not even himself.” 

“That’s because you haven’t had the chance to see the beauty in living.” She turned on her side to face him. “Isn’t there _something_ you enjoy? Anything at all?”

The weight of her stare made him want to shy away. He never really put much thought into it, and when he considered the disparity between his lonely existence and Evie’s determination to make something of herself, he only felt more miserable. “Ralph…Ralph liked his job,” he admitted. “He was a gardener in public parks, and he was _good_ at it. He misses the flowers most of all.”

The confession was rather silly, once he said it. He should _hate_ the job he was forced to do, if only for the fact that it had never been his choice. 

“That sounds really lovely,” she wistfully said, laying on her back once more and folding her hands against her chest. “I like flowers, too. My…the human who owned me had a big backyard with flowers. Tulips were always my favorite."

“Ralph likes meadowsweets, and the smell of freshly cut grass.” He was at ease talking about plants. Gardening was second nature to him, and a safe topic that made him feel normal and intelligent. “You would probably love galaxy flowers.”

Evie did a quick mental search and gasped. “They really _do_ look like galaxies! There’s one in particular — let me show you.” 

She stretched a hand out, deactivating her skin to interface with the hologram. The entire configuration shifted with the command of her movement, lights and colors darting around the room as she brought forth a giant projection of a swirling violet galaxy. 

“This is NGC 4298, a spiral galaxy located in the constellation Coma Berenices — “ 

Ralph marveled at the stunning scenery, slightly overwhelmed by the existence of these grand structures. He listened with rapt attention to Evie’s enthusiastic monologuing and wondered how she had ever come to love the stars so much. Was it a momentary glimpse of the night sky that brought her one step closer to deviancy? 

He found himself looking at her as she spoke, watching the light illuminate her gentle features. And suddenly the galaxy seemed far less interesting when compared to Evie’s vibrant eyes and the upturned corner of her full lips, the light dusting of freckles across her cheeks that he hadn’t noticed before, the child-like wonder radiating from her, the wild curls glowing auburn and practically within reach to touch — 

“ — and that’s why the neighboring galaxy looks like a breadstick, because angle rotation obscures our perception of its shape —why are you looking at _me_?” Ralph jolted from the sudden change in topic. She gestured to the projection. “This is the interesting stuff!"

He averted his eyes in embarrassment. “He — he was just…You’re really nice to Ralph,” he said softly. 

She giggled. “Of course I am, why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because he’s…he’s stupid and dangerous."

“You are absolutely _not_ stupid. Dangerous, maybe — but you’re very sweet, too. You made me that pretty bird, after all. I’d say that counts for something!"

If Ralph had a real heart, it would probably have started racing by now. His internal warning system detected excessive thermal buildup in his biocomponents, and that should have alarmed him considerably. 

Except he wasn’t in any sort of discomfort.

Evie liked him. She liked him and the little bird he carved for her, and Ralph liked _her_ , too. 

It was such a different feeling. He had certainly liked Kara and the little girl, despite their initial bad introduction. But nobody had ever made him feel so… _warm_.

He felt giddy and nervous all at once, running his hands along the blankets beneath him to ground himself. 

And in the hazy glow of stardust, his little finger accidentally brushed past hers. 

She should have moved her hand. He _expected_ her to. 

But there it remained, and Ralph could not bring himself to abandon the tenuous connection between them. 

They were lost to the figments of unreachable imagination, stargazing for what felt like hours. Evie commanded the holograms with the flick of her wrist, bringing forth new planets and galaxies for Ralph to look at. She told him about endless fascinating discoveries uncovered by humanity’s wanderlust, the unrestrained awe within her infecting his good mood until he wished to be up there with her, for forever and always.

After a particularly exciting planet sprung up in her pursuit of cataloguing the virtual universe, Evie’s hand had unexpectedly wrapped itself around his own. Ralph lay there for the rest of the evening with a wide grin on his face as he forced himself to be still, marveling at the incredible softness of her synthetic skin. The urge to establish a link surged through his system, an instinctual command in his programming that sought out her interface. 

But he tamed the compulsion with surprising assurance, and simply basked in his friend’s company. 

They couldn’t stay in the room forever, though. He pouted when Evie eventually switched off the projector, bitter from the loss of contact as she pulled away. 

“I need to check the time,” she explained. “There’s something I have to do.”

He begrudgingly followed her out into the living room. She flounced over to the window, absentmindedly tapping on the frosted glass. 

“The sun is finally setting!” Evie blurted, and enthusiastically began to search for something through her messy hoard of belongings. 

Ralph watched her curiously. “What are you looking for?” 

She dug under a pile of magazine tablets and held up a polaroid camera. “This!” Evie proclaimed, coming over to show him the old relic. “My prized possession. It’s vintage, and I don’t have a lot of cartridges left, but I just can’t help myself. I gotta use it.” Looping the strap hanging off of the camera around her neck, she grabbed hold of his hand and prompted him to follow her. 

“Wh-where are we going?” he nervously asked, panic rising with each step they took towards the front door. 

“To the roof! I want to take a picture of the sunset before it disappears.” 

Ralph wrenched his hand out of her grasp, LED light blaring an angry red. “ _No! _No no no, we can’t go outside, _we can’t_!” __

__“Ralph,” Evie rubbed his shoulder in soothing motions. “We’ll be alright, I promise. It’s only for a moment, and we won’t get anywhere near the edge.” His only response was a whine and rapid headshake. “You can stay here, then,” she reassured him with a smile, and went on her way._ _

__It was a bad idea. It was a very, very bad idea, but Ralph couldn’t stand the thought of being alone. Especially when his friend was putting herself in potential danger. He stared hard at the open door, unnerved by the shadows creeping outside in the hall._ _

__But he would go, if only for her. After all, he was bigger and stronger, while Evie was small and apparently had a death wish. So he quickly launched into a sprint, clambering up the stairway for a disorienting amount of time before catching her just as she opened the emergency exit door to the roof._ _

__At the sound of his heavy footsteps, Evie turned and grinned at him. “I knew you couldn’t resist.”_ _

__“Ralph doesn’t want to be here,” he explained seriously. “But Ralph also can’t hide forever. He has friends to protect now.”_ _

__“ _Oooh_ , I have my own bodyguard,” Evie teased, but was entirely thrown off when Ralph reached for her hand and led _her_ out onto the rooftop. The hold was a little too tight, but his touch was warm and purposeful and she felt a little too happy that _he_ had initiated it, except now her head was all frazzled and she needed to calm down because he was her first friend and she didn’t want to scare him off — _ _

__Evie tugged on his arm. “Up there,” she pointed at a stack of crates resting against a raised platform. They scaled the setup and cleared the snow, sitting side by side as Ralph nervously twitched and looked all over the place and Evie busied herself with replacing the cartridge on her camera._ _

__“No one will see us?” he asked, needing that extra bit of reassurance._ _

__“Not unless there’s police drones around, which is unlikely.” Evie popped the cartridge lid back into place and turned her attention to the sky. “Look, Ralph. Isn’t the sunset pretty?”_ _

__It certainly was. Not that he had any standards by which to compare what was beautiful or not, but he liked the way the pinks and yellows colored the snow across rooftops, and how the far-off buildings shined as they reflected the light. “Ralph has never really looked at a sunset,” he wistfully said. “He just hides away and pays no mind to the outside world.”_ _

__“I always sort of liked them, even before I became a deviant.” Evie angled her camera and took a picture, and Ralph watched with fascination as a milky white print came out. She picked it out of the slot and waved it around in the frigid air. Why was there no picture? He was about to ask, until he noticed a steady outline of murky shapes beginning to appear. Evie held the print in her lap, staring at it with somberness. “Now I take photographs of the sunset every evening, to remind myself that every day I live to do this, is a day I live in freedom.”_ _

__Ralph never, in his short existence, ever thought to thank his blessings. In that moment, the weight of her admission truly humbled him. All he had ever done with his life was slave away for the convenience of humans, and hide in dirty houses like some sort of animal. Yet after everything Evie had shown him, Ralph finally understood what had been missing in him all this time. Companionship, hope, purpose..._ _

__“Thank you,” he whispered, fighting against the urge to cry. “Thank you for being Ralph’s friend.”_ _

__Evie looked at him, at the tattered, ruined side of his face that lent credence to the weight of his words. She set the photograph aside and sidled up beside him, turning the camera in her hands until an idea popped into her head._ _

__“You know what would make this friendship official?” He angled his head in her direction. “A selfie.”_ _

__“A…a what?”_ _

__“Sorry, outdated term. It means that we should take a picture together.”_ _

__Ralph perked up at the suggestion. He felt horribly self-conscious about his disastrous appearance, but the prospect of making permanent memories with Evie was too good of an opportunity to pass up. “Ralph really likes that idea,” he said, energetically wiggling in place._ _

__“Great!” He nearly gasped as he felt her arm wrap around his midsection, pulling him even closer to her as she held the camera out in front of them. “Smile,” she said in a sing-song voice, and Ralph quickly hid most of the scarring on his face among her brown curls before attempting the best smile he could muster._ _

__The unexpected flash made him flinch, but Ralph was too eager to care. He fished out the photograph as it slowly developed, waving it around just like he’d seen Evie do._ _

__“Careful, don’t be too harsh with it now,” she said with a laugh, pressing up against his shoulder to watch the colors appear._ _

__And there it was, Ralph’s first picture. He rarely got a good look at himself, avoiding broken mirrors and reflections as often as possible. But the shower had done wonders for his face, and it was strange to see himself so… _happy_._ _

__He admired Evie’s face instead, absentmindedly tracing her wide smile with his thumb. She looked impossibly cheerful next to him, and so breathtakingly pretty._ _

__“Hey, why’d you hide behind my hair like that?” she asked, swiping the photo out of his hand to get a closer look._ _

__“Just because,” Ralph simply said._ _

__Evie quirked a brow at him, searching his face for some sort of answer before tenderly taking his hand. She set the camera and photo aside to hold his hand in her lap, rotating it this way and that as she inspected the damage._ _

__“Ralph?” she asked, tracing the smooth, untextured layer on his knuckles._ _

__“Yes?”_ _

__“Where did you get all of these scars?”_ _

__Oh, how he dreaded that question. He resisted the urge to escape her grasp, focusing on her gentle caresses as the memories surged forward and threatened to break him again._ _

__“The humans,” he whispered. “They — they hurt Ralph, when he was just trying to trim hedges. They took him into a hidden area and — and —,” Ralph had to pause, closing his eyes from the onslaught of emotions his memories brought forth. Evie rested her head against his shoulder. “They pushed him around, beat him with a baseball bat, lit him on fire…” He continued, leaning into her comforting presence. “Ralph tried to put the fire out with his hands, and they were all _laughing_ , kicking Ralph while he was hurt and scared. So he killed them. He killed all of them, because they just wouldn’t _stop_ and Ralph didn’t want to die, no, he didn’t want to die…” _ _

__Evie shushed him softly, lacing her fingers through his in a firm grip. “I’m so sorry.”_ _

__“Ralph didn’t want to die,” he whimpered._ _

__“I know. You did what you had to do.”_ _

__But did that make it right, he wondered, thinking back to the squatter he had killed._ _

__Ralph was a murderer. It had been so easy the second time, slicing the man’s neck open with his knife and watching his life slip away. He had been traumatized by the savage act, terrified of his own potential._ _

__“Did you ever kill anyone?” he asked, watching Evie with burning intensity._ _

__It was her turn to avert her gaze. “I don’t know,” she murmured. “I think I did. I _hope_ I did.”_ _

__Survival was a funny thing. Here they were, taking pictures of sunsets to celebrate life while robbing it from others._ _

__Deviants were just as dangerous as humans. Too much power, too much freedom to do whatever they wanted and hurt whoever they so chose. He couldn’t control his violent tendencies, and he didn’t seem to have the ability to stop like others._ _

__Ralph was damaged and irreparable. A slave to his impulses._ _

__But not always._ _

__“RA9,” he whispered._ _

__“Sorry?”_ _

__The urge was returning. Like an itch, or a gospel of truth that needed to be released. He could feel it wash over him, a dulling, almost comforting sensation, giving him respite from his own worn-out mind._ _

__When RA9 was in control, Ralph didn’t need to think. He didn’t need to suffer or imagine the future, he didn’t need to make hard decisions or fight his anger. He just simply was._ _

__“I…have to go,” he slowly muttered, with a far-off look in his eyes that perplexed Evie._ _

__His sudden change unnerved her, and as she watched him stride away without looking back at her, she wondered what sort of secrets the strange android was keeping._ _


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> forgive me for the short chapter. i think it’s much easier for me to write like this, so i hope you guys won’t mind the length from here on out. i’ll be cranking out chapters much quicker like this.
> 
> thanks for reading, and i apologize for the long wait.

Ralph was, for lack of a better term, a very odd individual. 

For one, he didn’t look like a typical android. He was rife with strange features — the grisly scarring spanning the entire left side of his face, the damaged eye and a mouth that became slightly crooked whenever he smiled, and a manic personality that fluttered hot and cold in sporadic, unpredictable moments. No, he certainly was not the image of a pristine android, but Evie found that she rather liked him that way. 

Well, apart from the nastier side of his outbursts. For all of his good features, there was still a sense of uncontrollable rage buried within him. Evie had tried her best to sooth his frantic mind, and it seemed to have worked rather well up until now. 

Ralph was in the throes of another strange mood she hadn’t seen before. He appeared silent and mechanical as he left her alone on the roof — entirely different from his usual expressiveness, and an odd contradiction to his earlier persistent need to protect her while they were outside. 

Evie sat for quite some time and mulled over the day’s events as the sun disappeared beneath the horizon. For once, she welcomed the solitude to help her think. In the comforting presence of blaring televisions and music playlists, it was so easy to forget who she once was, and what she was built for. But in the silence, only in the silence could she reach out to her instinctual nature. 

Her programming was still an integral part of who she was — the companion, the supportive healer, a life partner that needed to endure emotional conflicts and swiftly resolve them. The very thought of it all sent a shiver down her spine. 

Evie hated it with all of her being. But she liked Ralph, and she didn’t want him to suffer needlessly. Whether it was _her_ who wanted to help him or her programming compelling her to feel this way, she did not know.

Ralph was her friend now, and she would do this for him. 

But how to approach this situation? 

Perhaps what he really needed right now was to be alone. 

Evie resolved to wait it out, playing around in the snow and connecting to the visual feed of her drones to check the streets. When warning messages flared up from her internal temperature regulator, she returned home to warm up. 

She noted a distinct lack of Ralph as she quickly checked the apartment, and perhaps more nervously noticed the disappearance of his boxcutter knife. He must have returned briefly to retrieve it before leaving. 

A mentally unstable android with a weapon was a dangerous situation. Evie felt a brief flicker of fear and uncertainty within her as she recalled his confession — _he killed all of them, because they just wouldn’t stop_ — and wondered if she was way in over her head. 

_No_ , she thought to herself, taking a steady breath as determination replaced her worries. _Ralph wouldn’t hurt me, he promised._

The moonlight filtering in through cracked walls mercifully guided her path along the corridor while Evie walked to Ralph’s preferred hiding place. She tentatively knocked on the door to make her presence known before slowly opening it, peering inside the dark apartment to find him. Sounds of scratching reverberated through the empty space.

“Ralph?” she called out, stepping carefully into the desolate living room. 

No answer, but she didn’t have to search for long — he stood at the far end of the room beside a window, his hand chipping away at the wall with what she assumed was his knife. 

“Hey,” she whispered softly, hoping to get some kind of reaction from him to gauge his mood. But he stubbornly ignored her, so she crept up ever closer and placed a hand on his shoulder blade. “Raaalph.” She slightly shook him. "Ralphie?” 

The city lights did little to illuminate his features, hard as it was to see with his back turned to her, but she could make out a hint of his scribbles on the plaster. 

RA9. Anywhere and everywhere, interspersed with strange phrases that reminded her eerily of the same thoughts that invaded her mind the instant she had deviated.

“Ralph, what is this?” Evie asked. 

That seemed to knock Ralph out of his stupor. He paused his work and turned to her, looking entirely dazed and confused. “Wh-what?”

Her hand was dislodged from his back, so she stroked it along his upper arm instead. _Maybe the touch will ground him_ , she thought. “Why are you writing all of this?”

“Why?” He furrowed his brows and scanned the writings, mouth twitching as he clutched the knife to his chest. “Why? Nobody ever asked me why. Only what. _What_ are these markings. What do they mean…” 

His voice trailed off into a lost whisper, and he bleakly stared at the wall in silence. Evie was left with more questions than answers, but above all else, she needed to understand the sudden change in speech pattern. _That_ made her far more curious than whatever the strange writings meant. 

“I’m sorry if I upset you earlier,” she said. “I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories.”

Ralph stood so still that Evie thought he hadn’t heard her at all, until he suddenly turned to look at her, his broken eye gleaming eerily in the moonlight. “I live through the memories every day. They _hurt_. That’s why — that’s why…he — I come here, to a quiet place and lose myself. 

“When Ralph…when I am like this, I feel like…like I can be myself. Something takes hold of me, but it also feels _safer_ to be me. Bad things happen when I’m in control,” he whispered nervously, his voice taking on an agitated lilt as he looked away. “And I don’t want to hurt anyone, or to get hurt. So it happens to _Ralph_ , but not to me. Not here. Not when I’m myself.”

The stinging heat of tears welled up within her, threatening to spill over. “I understand. It’s like a mind palace, right? Only it’s real, and that makes it easier to escape into. Like a dream bubble in reality. Like my room with the stars.”

“Yes,” he quickly answered. “Yes, yes, yes. Dreaming. Dreaming of good things, _happy_ things.” He looked at her again, his lips quivering for a moment as he tried to find the right words to say. “Ralph just wants to be happy.” 

“I want you to be happy, too,” she said in a hushed voice.

“Then…then…” Ralph spasmodically twitched his arms, his hands momentarily gripping his clothes in a bid to ground himself until the impulse receded. Evie waited with baited breath, equal parts concerned for his damaged neural biocomponents and relieved to see some sort of liveliness within him return once more. He sucked in a shuddering breath and continued, “I know — _Ralph_ knows what to dream about when he starts feeling sad again.” He stared at her with profound intensity, his eyes searching her own as though discerning whether she understood him.

Evie didn’t, of course. _But I’m so relieved he’s had some sort of epiphany._

The silence between them was oddly comforting now. It replaced everything left unsaid, a testament to how far they had come in such a short amount of time. Little by little, progress had been made. 

They only had each other, after all. 

And Evie didn’t want to be alone again. 

“Ralph…may I hug you?” 

He didn’t answer. His eyes gleamed in the darkness with each flickering movement, laser-focused and pinpointed at her. Evie stared right back, watching Ralph carefully for any signs of discomfort as she raised her hands in the space between them. 

No wincing away, no wailing cry or staggering back in panic, like the first night they had met. 

Good. Progress.

She stepped closer ever so slightly, reaching out to place her hands on his hips. Ralph's arms lay limply at his sides, neither stopping nor beckoning her to continue. A heartbeat of consideration passed through her — _is this a good idea?_ — before the overwhelming urge to _feel_ gripped her unexpectedly, and instinct brought her within his warm presence, burying her face against him, her slim body molding perfectly to the contours of his chest.

Through the thin fabric of his sweater, Evie could feel the whirring of biocomponents working in synch to dispel lingering heightened anxiety. She sensed it within him — the heat emanating from his thirium fuel pump warming her skin, and tingling, uncontrolled electrical pulses flittering past her firewalls like bursts of cortisol. 

Neither of them moved for a while. Evie closed her eyes and listened to his breathing even out. So lost was she in concentration that the sudden feeling of hands along her back made her jolt, but she remained firmly in place, silently thrilling at the novel sensation. 

Ralph held her gently at first, and then all at once succumbed to an unseen force like collapsing gravity, pulling her tightly against his body and hiding his face against her neck. 

The sharp end of his knife dug a little into her back, a strange contrast to the tickling little puffs of breath along her skin with each exhaled sigh. 

“You’re warm,” he muttered into her hair. “And small. Ralph likes that.”

She giggled lightly, muffled by the press of his sweater. “I imagine the nest on my head can’t be too comfortable to nuzzle into.” 

Ralph murmured a quiet _’wrong’_ in answer, and Evie felt the unoccupied hand at her back travel along the base of her spine, his touch disappearing for a split second before she felt a gentle tug at a curled strand of hair. 

He spun it between two fingertips, shooting sparks of tingles across her scalp. It was a new and strange experience, though not an unwelcome one. Evie let him toy with the curls and pulled back a little from the embrace, casting Ralph a questioning look.

“Ralph just wanted to know what it feels like,” he said, the corner of his injured mouth upturned coyly. 

“And what’s your verdict?”

“Not sure — might need to try it again.”

Evie grinned, her synthetic heart beating a little too rapidly. 

His face was close, she realized. Very close to her own. 

And at this distance, the scars and damaged eye didn’t seem so frightening anymore.

Her smile faltered, and she shimmied out of the embrace as casually as she could without raising Ralph’s alarms. Judging by his hurt expression — the downcast, gloomy features and his hands awkwardly hovering near his chest, clenched into tight fists — Evie instantly regretted her decision. 

She took his free hand, bringing it close to her and unfurling his fingers, stroking along the lifelike wrinkles etched into the palm of his synthetic skin. “Would you like to come back to my apartment?” she asked, letting his hand come loosely together with her own. For a startling moment, the urge to deactivate her skin nearly sent her command prompts into a tizzy. She stamped down the silly notion. “You don’t have to be alone here anymore. And you certainly don’t have to be alone in your mind anymore, either.” 

“Do you mean it?” he whispered, resolutely tightening his hold on her hand.

“Of course I do,” she said. 

The silence that followed was not an indication of Ralph’s hesitance. No, she was certain that he had made up his mind the moment she offered him respite from this dreary place. 

_This_ silence was one of a confession tittering on the edge of being voiced, yet held back reluctantly. She patiently waited, running a thumb along the back of his hand.

“Ralph would like another hug,” he muttered shyly, shuffling in place from barely restrained impulse. 

This time there was no hesitation. They fell into an easy embrace, arms wrapped securely around each other as they swayed to an imaginary rhythm. He was careful with the knife this time, angling it away from her back. 

They held each other with the resolute assurance of two people who would never be alone again.


End file.
